"And some of my really close friends were very liberal Democrats. I didn't agree with them on a lot of stuff, OK? But we were friends."

Those collegial relationships made the process go better, he said.

"I began to see it melting down towards the end of my tenure there" in 2001, he said.

Things are so different now, he said, that when he attended the address to Congress by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this year Republicans were surprised to see him hugging House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

"We walk across the aisle and people are like, 'is this man crazy? Why is he talking to those Democrats?'" he said.

Kasich said the theme of his own candidacy if he decides to run will be economic growth. He said he already has contacted the Obama administration with his stimulus plan to bring jobs back to America from Europe, but said his idea wasn't well received.

"The guy goes, 'Well, you know, they might give it to shareholders.' I said, 'God forbid that. Let them put it in R& D. Let's get the money back here.'"

Kasich's state added 1,500 manufacturing jobs in May, and a total of 360,000 jobs since he took office in 2011, he said. In addition to manufacturing and agriculture, Kasich pointed out he has added jobs in cloud computing, financial services, medical devices, energy and logistics as well.

It all comes from having a stable budget and cutting taxes by more than $3 billion, he said.

Turning to the impending June 30 deadline for a nuclear deal with Iran, Kasich said President Barack Obama appears to be in love with his own deal. Instead, he said, sanctions should be left in place to prevent Iran from funneling money to terrorist groups such as Hamas.

"I'm a little bit afraid the president has fallen in love with this, like 'This is going to be my deal,'" Kasich said. "I have seen people fall in love with their own deals. That is not good."